And the striker admitted he has known the midfielder since they were playing youth football for their national team and have been buddies ever since.

“What happened was that we had won the European U-19 Championship in France the previous day, so we only arrived at the hotel an hour before we had to set off for the Emirates!” Lacazette told Arsenal Player.

“We arrived in good time for the warm-up. It’s just that by the time we travelled from the training camp in France to London, there was only an hour or two to spare.

“Francis and I kept in touch after that. We’ve had a lot of contact over the last few years and even more over the last few weeks, of course, since it became increasingly likely that I would come to Arsenal.